Bye, Bye, Blackwater?
Earlier this week, the Iraqi government announced that it intends to expel Blackwater USA, a private security firm, based in eastern North Carolina, from Iraq. On Sunday, some employees of Blackwater USA were involved in a shooting that left several Iraqi civilians dead. The company has government contracts to protect senior American personnel in Iraq. As a North Carolinian, I learned about Blackwater USA early. In 2004, my friend and former teacher, Barry Yeoman, profiled the company for Mother Jones magazine. Months later, Jay Price and Joseph Neff, staff writers for The News & Observer, wrote a series of articles about Blackwater USA. Now that the United States has a smaller military, private security companies have a lot of work. Is that a good thing? Since the war in Iraq began, nothing has happened to any of Blackwater USA's high-profile targets. Are they doing work that the American military simply cannot do?
David Gura
1:59 PM ET
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09-19-2007
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Hillary Care, an AG Nominee, and Guns... Oh My!
Last week, our Political Junkie segment was all Iraq... the hearings, the President's speech, rebuttals, etc, etc. This week, Hillary care, an AG nominee, attack ads, and guns join Iraq on the political agenda in Washington. And, the race for president in 2008 just keeps getting more and more crowded. Who betrayed MoveOn.org this time? Who else is retiring? Who's jumping into the fray? We'll talk about it all when Ken Rudin swings by for our weekly hit of the Political Junkie. Questions? Comments? Let us know...
Scott Cameron
1:58 PM ET
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09-19-2007
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Dave Barry Sez...
Dave Barry drives a Cruzin Cooler around Coral Gables, Florida.
Dave Barry thinks a Marie Antoinette ejector head doll makes a great gift for your son or daughter.
Dave Barry knows why there's a giant eyeball on the dollar bill... and says three of those dollar bills per week is the perfect allowance for your kids.
Dave Barry spent a year sitting around and working on his toenails.
All of these statements are true, at least according to Dave Barry. What truths have you learned from him? He's got a new book out, Dave Barry's History of the Millennium -- So Far, which means you're about to learn some real and useful facts about the last six or seven years... and as a bonus, he's got a history of the previous thousand years for you, too!
Sarah Handel
1:57 PM ET
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09-19-2007
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Evil On A Lunch Break
Auschwitz is a universally acknowledged symbol of horror and inhumanity. It turns out, that like many places, it's also a place of predictability and banality as well. An archivist at the United States Holocaust Museum was sent these pictures of SS guards and other Auschwitz employees frolicking, relaxing, and enjoying themselves outside of their horrifying work. See more here. It's a stunning reminder that the men and women who perpetrated these crimes were terrifyingly human -- just like the people they were torturing.
Barrie Hardymon
1:56 PM ET
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09-19-2007
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September 19th Show
Hi all. Busy day...but today's show looks like it's coming together quickly. Our first hour will be a discussion about U.S. contractors in Iraq. The Iraqi government recently decided to ban the private security contractor Blackwater USA after a deadly gunfight broke out in Baghdad. We'll talk about the role of American private contractors in Iraq and their participation within an ongoing military operation. Following that, our own political junkie Ken Rudin talks about Hillary Clinton's universal health care plan, the new Attorney General nominee, and the National Rifle Association's upcoming convention in Washington D.C. and the presidential candidates that are scheduled to attend.
So much has happened in the new millennium already that it's hard to image how we can possibly keep track of it all. Luckily, humorist Dave Barry has written all the note-worthy events down and compiled them in his new book, Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far). We'll review the millennium years with Dave Barry in our second hour. Afterwards, we'll talk with Rebecca Erbelding, an archivist at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She recently received over one-hundred photos that were discovered in a Frankfurt basement depicting the seemingly normal day-to-day lives of senior SS officers in Auschwitz.
Enjoy today's show!
Gwen Outen
11:51 AM ET
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09-19-2007
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RBs Rule, DBs Drool
The other day Scott passed me a fantastic column by Dave Zirin, who's always a favorite of ToTN. We had him on recently, so it wasn't a good fit for the air, but Scott knew I, in particular, would be interested in Zirin's latest piece on fantasy football. I'm a reasonably dedicated fantasy fan, and a huge Washington Redskins fan, so I latched onto Zirin's article immediately... and despaired to read that he thinks fantasy football is more disease than diversion. Zirin opines,
Those who puff the hookah of fantasy football believe that the leagues are just a harmless diversion that puts the average fan in a position to be "more involved" in the game. But behind the veneer of crunching numbers and poring over player statistics that goes into creating a fantasy team is more disengagement than involvement. Indeed, the numbers act as a moat between fantasy owner and the actuality of the game.
Basically, Zirin argues that fantasy football emphasizes the performances of individual players, forcing fans to pay more attention to the athlete than the team. I think he's right, but it's only a problem for some fantasy coaches. I used to be in a pretty intense fantasy league (so intense that I had to resign this year due to ugly politics... I get enough of politics at work, I don't need it in my recreational time!), and there were guys in the league who spent hours poring over stats, reading analysis, and checking the automatically-updating progress of their players every couple of minutes. While I wouldn't accuse any of them of abandoning their favorite teams (marquee Falcons were hot commodities, as the league was Georgia-based), their focus was definitely split, to say the least. For me, however, it made me much more aware of the league as a whole. As a long-time Redskins fan, I could speak fairly intelligently about that team, and probably about division rivals, but that was about it, till fantasy. Now I have a better understanding about the league as a whole. While it may not be terrifically deep, it's definitely more broad, and it makes Sundays even more fun, since I have six or seven years of fantasy teams behind me and can follow the players. One year, for instance, I had tons of Giants on my team, so I still follow Ike Hilliard (now in Tampa Bay), and another year it was Colts Colts Colts, so Brandon Stokely's still a random favorite of mine, even though he's since moved on to Denver. I think Zirin's point is a good one, and he's right -- outside of my Redskins, it's still all about individual players for me -- but ultimately, the camaraderie of fantasy has only enhanced my enjoyment of the NFL season. And, lucky me, I drafted Clinton Portis this year, so no conflict of interest there!
Sarah Handel
10:57 AM ET
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09-19-2007
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